Thus explaining why people need to do things like patch the game and/or modify their hosts file in order to connect to third-party servers. If trying to authenticate the server you connect to and leaving you with no options for connecting to third party servers is not DRM, what would you call it?
"What stops you is the lack of them giving you the server software."
Nope, the protocols are reverse engineered and people create their own server software.
> Nope, the protocols are reverse engineered and people create their own server software.
Which is one of two reasons (the other being anti-cheating) that newer games withhold a large part of the game logic on the server side. It is possible to reverse engineer game logic but impractical: you might as well rewrite the game.
If you have a look at efforts to reverse engineer Diablo 3, you'll see that most of the game is missing without the server. You can run around but you can't do anything.
Thus explaining why people need to do things like patch the game and/or modify their hosts file in order to connect to third-party servers. If trying to authenticate the server you connect to and leaving you with no options for connecting to third party servers is not DRM, what would you call it?
"What stops you is the lack of them giving you the server software."
Nope, the protocols are reverse engineered and people create their own server software.